Lackluster Hawks Fall To Toronto

Leafs Fans Distracted By Series

TORONTO — For once, hockey here was pushed into the back seat. Far more people were bird-watching Saturday night while perched in front of their TV sets.

With the Toronto Blue Jays opening the World Series in Atlanta, this game between the Blackhawks and Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens was attended by an announced crowd of 15,739. But there were really 1,000 to 2,000 less than that.

Some Hawks were missing in action as well, playing a game that was for the birds as far as Hawk fans were concerned. The visitors lost 4-3 in a game in which their offense was dull, their goaltending average and their overall effort uninspiring.

Even diehard hockey fans back in Chicago may have switched channels to see the baseball rather than the third period.

Russian import Nikolai Borschevsky broke a 2-2 deadlock with the first of two Leaf goals in the second period.

He made a good shot from the left circle in beating goalie Ed Belfour high on his glove side for his fifth goal this season.

Borschevsky made the pass a short time later from the right side that found Glenn Anderson free in the low slot.

Anderson feinted and got Belfour to make a move that carried him down to the ice before lifting a shot into a gaping net.

It was his second goal of the night and the Toronto lead was two at the second intermission.

The third period was scoreless until the Hawks` Igor Kravchuk scored a power-play goal with 43 seconds left, but veteran goalie Grant Fuhr kept the visitors from tying things up.

Belfour was looking for his first victory of the season after losing and tying against Tampa Bay in his other two starts. Jimmy Waite owned the Hawks` only victory in their previous four games.

Coach Darryl Sutter juggled his lines in the second period, ripping a page from former coach Mike Keenan`s book, hoping to inject some life into the attack.

But the Hawks rarely threatened Fuhr, and this goalie is too steady and constant to fall apart unless a team can sustain intense offensive pressure.

The Hawks, who have looked punchless on offense in the opening stages this season, did very little with two power-play chances in the second period. After scoring five power-play goals in their previous two games, they were having a difficult time trying to extend that special-teams streak here.

What had been an ugly first period for the Hawks ended on a pretty note. Jeremy Roenick danced on his skates on a rush at the net and got off a shot after a yo-yo move with the puck.

He got around Kent Manderville on the left wing and darted quickly toward Fuhr. Defenseman Jamie Macoun tried to stop him at the left crease, but Roenick faked a shot, drew the puck back and went past Macoun to the middle of the crease for his shot.

He tucked the puck under Fuhr`s leg to even the score 2-2 at the first intermission.

Toronto mustered just five shots in the opening 12:39, but two of them found their way past Belfour. The first goal was a poor play by the goalie and the second was a bad bounce when Belfour anticipated a puck going behind the net on a dump-in.

Instead, the puck caromed off one of the stanchions on the sideboard glass and slid into the crease. Belfour was trying to backtrack to the side of the net, expecting to play the puck behind the net.

The right post saved Belfour briefly; the puck deflected off it and back out. But a desperate Belfour missed the rebound with his stick to allow Doug Gilmour, who dumped the puck, to follow up and score on the second chance by shooting into the far right side of the net.

Belfour was certain to blame ill fortune for this goal hiking the Leaf lead to 2-0. But he had only himself to blame on Anderson`s goal at 5:06.

Anderson curved behind the net with the puck and fired at Belfour as he came out on the left side of the crease. The goalie got a glove on the puck, but it carried by him and over the goal line.

It was just Toronto`s second shot of the night and the last one that the Leafs would take for almost seven minutes.

The Hawks didn`t generate their sixth shot until 16:18 of the opening period, but it led to their first goal.

Greg Gilbert won a faceoff in the left circle to get the puck back to the point for defenseman Steve Smith. His slap shot from there was too much fire for Fuhr to blow out and the Leafs were ahead by just one goal.

Toronto`s power play has been one of the NHL`s worst so far this year. Gilmour`s goal technically was with a man advantage, but it wasn`t the kind of score you expect from this situation.

The Hawks made the mistake of committing penalties to be shorthanded within seconds of each other.

Four seconds after they survived Smith`s interference foul, referee Don Koharski called interference on Gilbert at 11:32.

Then, when the Hawks had their first power-play chance at 13:12, they were only 22 seconds into it when Roenick evened the sides with a penalty for holding an opponent`s stick.

The last four minutes salvaged the period for the Hawks, but until then they were struggling in a big way.